


Halloween

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24108295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Halloween, 1981. The night the Potters were murdered. When Sirius Black was woken, his entire world collapsed around him as he realised that everything that he loved had been ripped away.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> (tw: swearing, blood, death, descriptions of murder)

It looked, to the world, a normal night. The sky was a shade of not-quite-black, and the moon was thin, a sliver of silk curved in on itself. 

Sirius was asleep when it happened. The green light struck thrice, and it was on the third strike that he was finally jolted awake, breath heavy and forehead damp with sweat. Nightmare. Must have been. 

He drifted back into an uneasy slumber, trying to convince himself that it was okay, that everything was in his head. He had trouble sleeping whenever Remus was on a mission. 

Sirius was woken again what felt like minutes later, but this time by footsteps too loud for Moony, drawing closer and closer to his bedroom. He rolled out of bed slowly, wand raised. 

“I warn you,” he called out into the stiff air, “I’m armed. Show yourself!” 

A massive figure opened the door, and switched on the light. Hagrid. Sirius felt his posture relax slightly, and let his arm drop so it hung by his side.

“S’orright, Sirius, it’s just me,” Hagrid whispered. His face was blotched with red, and his shoulders sagged in a way that made him seem, somehow, small. “Sirius, You Know Who... shit. I really dunno how to tell yeh. M’sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Voldemort? What? What happened, Rubeus?”

“You Know Who, Sirius, he... he found ‘em.”

“Remus?” Sirius whispered, hoarsely. No. No, it couldn’t have been. Not his Remus. Anyone but Remus.

“Nah, not him,” Hagrid muttered, almost inaudibly. “James and Lily, Sirius.”

Sirius felt his legs drop out from under him, but barely registered hitting the floor. His entire body had gone numb, and every emotion he imagined possible had fallen out of his grasp. There was nothing.

There was a ringing, in the air, that crashed down on Sirius, crushing him, screaming into his ears. It was comforting. He tried to listen it, tried to use the drone that surrounded him as a distraction from his thoughts. He wanted to use it like some sort of anaesthesia, and let it knock him out. He didn’t want to have to feel what he knew he would if he let himself concentrate on reality. 

Instead, listening to the sound was like rousing a lion. It was like a thousand crows, destroying his mind. And his head was spinning, and he thought that he could deal with this, though he could ignore what was going on inside of him but he couldn’t.  
And then, it stopped.

Lying down on the floor was good. The cold sensation made Sirius feel acknowledged. But the ground beneath him began to grow warm and Sirius felt it start to crack beneath him but maybe it was his head that was cracking because

Peter Pettigrew

Peter fucking Pettigrew.

“Sirius?” Hagrid asked, quietly. It wasn’t a question. “Harry lived.” It was those words that finally pulled him back into his bedroom, into the harsh reality that he couldn’t quite understand. 

He pulled in a sharp intake of breath, and pushed himself to his feet. “Let’s go.”

The trip they took to Godric’s Hollow was a blur, and all Sirius knew was that he had to get there, had to go faster. Hagrid sat in the sidecar of the motorbike, not saying a word, and for that, he was grateful.

They were there in minutes, but to Sirius, it felt like an eternity. He dumped the motorbike in a side street, and tripped twice in his hurry to reach the front of the front of the property.

The house was destroyed, windows shattered and walls crushed, and there was noise everywhere, so much noise, but Sirius couldn’t make out any of it. Because right there, right in front of the gate, was Peter. 

This was the second time that everything had blurred in Sirius’ head that night.

“Hagrid, take Harry and go,” Sirius said. “I’ll deal with everyone here.”

Before the giant could protest, Sirius had begun walking towards Peter. The man was facing away from him, along with a dozen or so Muggles, dressed in Halloween costumes. They must have witnessed the attack. 

“Pettigrew,” Sirius barked, barely registering the words that emerged from his mouth. 

The look on Peter’s face when he turned to look at Sirius was initially one of terror. Sirius felt the tug of a sadistic smile curve his lip when he saw that. Rat of a bastard should be scared. Within a short second, however, Pettigrew’s expression morphed into something that more closely resembled anger. 

“Sirius,” Pettigrew called, voice almost robotically quavering at the end of the word. “Sirius, why would you?”

“Don’t give me that SHIT, PETTIGREW,” Sirius screamed, as he kept walking towards the crowd. The sound of his motorbike firing up was a background noise that Sirius barely even noticed. “IT TOOK YOU ONE WEEK! ONE WEEK TO SELL THEM OUT!”

That was the moment everything around Sirius started to crash down. All those emotions that he couldn’t feel before were there, and everything he wanted to say came bubbling out in a flow of words that even he barely understood.

“HOW COULD YOU, PETE, HE LOVED YOU, HE LOVED ALL OF US! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS, YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! AND LILY, SHE LOVED YOU TOO! SHE HUGGED YOU WHEN YOU CRIED ABOUT YOUR STUPID GODDAMN MOTHER, SHE WAS THERE FOR YOU WHEN WE COULDN’T BE! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY THEM! HOW DARE YOU DISGRACE EVERYTHING WE STOOD FOR? HOW DARE YOU?”

And with that, Sirius was on the ground again. But this time, it was uncomfortable. This time, he didn’t want the cold. 

The Muggles had all backed behind Peter, terrified. The little shit just stood there, and Sirius thought, for just a second, that he saw a tear running down his face. He can’t have. Must have been his imagination.

“Me?” Peter squeaked. “Me, betray them? You were the secret keeper, Sirius, you absolute... do you have any sense of remorse, any at all? You fucking prick, Remus is going to be destroyed by this!”

It was the mention of Moony’s name that put Sirius into a blur for the third time that night.

He didn’t see the massive flash of green light emerging from Peter’s wand.

He didn’t see Peter pull a glistening knife out of his pocket or hear his scream as he brought it down on his own thumb. 

He didn’t see the bastard disappear from where he’d stood a moment before, leaving only a finger, a tiny pile of blood, and twelve dead bodies. 

He didn’t see the hours pass as he lay there, cold, empty and alone. 

He didn’t see the Aurors come to take him away, and didn’t see them throw his body into a tiny, metal crate. 

He didn’t see the headline in the papers the next day that read “Sirius Black: Murderer and Death Eater.” 

He didn’t see his Moony, returning home from the mission the next morning to an empty bed and an empty home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! Thanks so much for reading, hope I did an okay job. This hurt quite a bit to write, but hey, that's what we're all here for <33


End file.
